TORONTO -- Freedom Mobile's subscriber growth gained momentum during the summer months despite a new level of competition from its bigger rivals, senior management at Shaw Communications Inc. told analysts Friday as the company reported a fourth-quarter profit of $167 million.

During the quarter ended Aug. 31, Freedom added 90,700 customers to bring its total to nearly 1.7 million subscribers in three provinces -- making it the largest of Canada's four main regional wireless carriers.

The subscriber growth exceeded analyst estimates, which had generally been for less than the 85,000 net subscriber additions that Freedom reported in last year's equivalent period.

Paul McAleese, Shaw's president of wireless, said a new pricing strategy introduced by Rogers and the other two national carriers since June had only a short-term effect until Freedom responded with promotions of its own in August.

"I think by any objective measure, I'd describe Q4 as one of the most competitively intense periods that the Canadian wireless industry has ever seen," McAleese told a conference call with investors to discuss the company's latest financial results.

He said he believed there was "something of a lack of pricing discipline in the market, really across the board" and, without naming the company, pointed towards quarterly results from Rogers Communications Inc. released Wednesday.

Rogers was the first of Canada's three big national wireless carriers to announce their first data plans without overage fees, with plans for its flagship brand beginning at $75 a month -- about $10 more than comparable Freedom plans.

Bell and Telus later introduced similar "unlimited" or "endless" plans that don't charge extra for exceeding a plan's scheduled usage, although they reserve the right to slow down transfer speeds after a predetermined limit.

Rogers said on Wednesday that a million of its customers had adopted its unlimited data plans since they were introduced, about three times more than expected.

"My perspective is that unlimited came out below the rate that it should have done. And certainly the results you saw this week probably support that," McAleese said.

He added that he thinks the adoption by the large national carriers of equipment instalment payments -- which spread the cost of new devices over many months -- hadn't "worked as expected" for Freedom's rivals.

Freedom's response was to fully subsidize the cost of customers' new devices, rather than have them pay some or all of the true hardware cost over 24 to 36 months.

"We still love what we're getting here," McAleese said. "We were able to move 30 per cent of our (new post-paid subscriptions) to a rate plan of $75 (per month) or above."

"It was certainly an expensive quarter from a subsidy standpoint but what we got in exchange for that trade was something we would take again and will do again."

Shaw chief executive Brad Shaw said the wireless division -- formed with the acquisition of Wind Mobile in March 2016 -- has established itself as an industry innovator through investments in its facilities-based network.

He added that a change in telecommunications policy, articulated by the Liberal government and the federal regulator just months before the Oct. 21 election, threatens to undermine those investments.

He said that "we have already altered our plans with respect to launching new higher-speed internet tiers and additional wireless expansion beyond our footprint."

Freedom Mobile remains a relatively small part of Shaw's overall business, which includes one of Western Canada's largest residential internet and video cable networks.

It earned 32 cents per share in its latest quarter, down from a profit of $196 million or 38 cents per share in the same quarter last year, due to lower equity income associated with its investment in Corus Entertainment, which was sold in May, and gains on asset sales a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $1.35 billion, up from nearly $1.33 billion a year ago. Wireless revenue totalled $283 million, up from $241 million a year ago, while wireline revenue slipped to $1.07 billion from $1.09 billion last year.